KARACHI, June 6: Two members of the Sindh Bar Council requested the high court on Wednesday to declare the Pemra ordinance null and void for being repugnant to the Constitution.

Petitioners Salahuddin Gandapur and Mohammad Aqil submitted through Advocate Mustafa Lakhani that arbitrary powers conferred on the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority by the ordinance were not only violative of article 19 of the Constitution, which guaranteed the freedom of expression and of the press, but also of the principles of natural justice inasmuch its section 39-A empowered the Pemra to act against television channels without a show-cause notice.

They also questioned president’s authority to promulgate an ordinance on the eve of a National Assembly session and when the Senate was already in session. The ordinance, they said, was aimed at blocking the lawyers’ movement from public view.—Staff Reporter